A Thousand Flowers
by Peripheral Vision
Summary: So much pointless cuteness. Yuna and Tidus watch each other and wonder.


Tidus brought Yuna flowers once.  
  
They had stopped for the night, and he and Rikku and Wakka had gone to the waterside  
to play blitzball (or really just play around in the serf with a blitzball) and Tidus came back  
with a ragged collection of lace-edged flowers, which grew among the sea grass on the  
dunes. He presented her the bouquet almost sheepishly, his hair waterlogged and hanging in  
his eyes, chalky salt tracks running down his face.  
  
Rikku bounced around them with an armful of her own, and Tidus gave a few to Lulu too.  
Yuna was glad for that - she might not have let herself accept them otherwise, no matter  
how much she wanted to. She wore one flower tucked behind her ear for the rest of the day,  
and left the rest in the hotel room. She thought about drying them, but decided it was  
probably wiser if she didn't.  
  
She likes watching him and Rikku together. They should have been the pair of cousins,  
they're so much alike. They feed off each others energy, getting more and more worked up  
over some new idea or discovery until their excitement practically glows around them and  
Sir Auron voices a practical objection with a mildly cutting edge. They both glare at him and  
pout.  
  
But Yuna has to admit she likes to watch him more when he's alone.  
  
Tidus is pure motion, sleek muscular energy, with an athlete's economy of grace. When he  
stops, it's abrupt and focused and usually quick. His eyes are almost an unsettling blue; it  
was one of the first things she noticed about him, although at the time it was in a purely  
analytic way - he was new to Besaid, his eyes were blue, he looked confused and  
overwhelmed. But one thing about Tidus is he never lets himself be overwhelmed by  
anything for very long. She noticed that about him early on too.  
  
Sometimes a trick of the light will turn his eyes the burnished gold of a Ronso's, and when he  
looks at her her belly feels warm and liquid.  
  
He's impetuous but not thoughtless, and when he accidently brushes against her arm or  
waist she can feel it for the rest of the day, prickles of static in the shape of his hand.  
  
****  
  
When Yuna sits next to him by the fireside, Tidus can feel himself sit up straighter and  
something large and heavy in his chest expanding as if to squeeze all the air out of his lungs.  
  
He's never met a girl like her. Maybe because she isn't even a /girl/, not really. Well,  
Lulu's definitely not a girl either, but Yuna doesn't scare him. Not that Lulu scares him,  
she's just kinda intense and... yeah.  
  
Yuna's the most elegant thing he's ever seen, and he makes a complete ass out of himself  
in front of her at least five times a day. But she just smiles at him sweetly, and he feels all  
warm and goofy inside.  
  
For someone so reserved, Yuna is surprisingly tactile. She's always running her hand  
against the wall, patting the trunks of trees that she passes, turning a stone over in the palm  
of her hand. Deep in thought, her fingers will stroke up and down her staff in a way that  
makes him a little uncomfortable.  
  
She's all smoothness and roundness and silk. Her serenity radiates around her; he watches  
her talking to people and invariably a few minutes later they are calmer and happier.  
Sometimes Tidus wants to curl around her and absorb that peacefulness for himself, but  
that seems selfish somehow.   
  
Once when he'd been in a funk about Sin and Jecht and getting back to Zanarkand, Yuna  
had sat next to him and put her head in her hands, making a little 'hmm' noise as if he were  
one of those puzzles that depend on the one piece that never fits anywhere. Then she had  
flashed one of those brilliant smiles, pressed a piece of coral into his hand, and flitted  
away.  
  
The coral was rough and pinkish with edges that jutted out for no particular reason. He  
kept it in his pocket until he lost it somewhere in the Thunderplains.  
  
****  
  
There are some things that Yuna knows unequivocally, instinctively and deep in her bones.  
She can't remember a time when she wasn't determined to be a Summoner. And the  
second or third time she saw Tidus's grin or the way he cocked his head when he was  
trying to understand something, well, she knew.  
  
It hasn't even occurred to her to tell him. She hasn't told anyone, although Lulu and  
Kimahri at least know. It could only hurt him, and that's the last thing she ever wants to  
do. He's keeping her safe from fiends, and in return she will keep him safe from her.  
  
The secret is nestled inside her chest, snug and safe, like a baby bird. It's sweet enough to  
keep the doubts, the fear, the misery and the other, nastier secrets at bay.  
  
****  
  
She's way out of his league.  
  
Tidus isn't used to thinking that about most girls, but Yuna isn't most girls, and he can  
accept the fact that she's too good for him without real rancor.  
  
Still, maybe when this is all over, when both their jobs are done, he might be able to sit her  
down and tell her. The worst she would do is reject him gently, and then he'll just find a hole  
to crawl up and die in. Or maybe she won't and, oh man. That would be /great/.  
  
When all of this is over, then he'll know. 


End file.
